There's a Nintendo Power Glove Documentary Coming (Yes, It Has a Wizard Reference)

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There's a Nintendo Power Glove Documentary Coming (Yes, It Has a Wizard Reference)

If you're reading this web site you probably know what a Power Glove is, but just in case, here's a quick primer: The Power Glove was a controller for the original Nintendo Entertainment System that came out in 1989. The idea was that it could use hand gestures to control gameplay. It was a cool(ish) idea that never really took off, but in recent years has garnered a certain panache amongst old-school gaming fans and, interestingly, modders looking to use it for music and art.

And now, it's getting a documentary. The Power of Glove documents not only the Glove's development and release—Mattel sold it in the U.S.—but also the legacy of the peripheral as it has become a pop culture phenomenon. (We're not saying this all started with petulant videogame asshat Lucas Barton saying, "I love the Power Glove. It's so bad." in the movie The Wizard, but it probably started there.)

Initially the filmmakers behind the documentary were drawn to the subject for the same reasons most gamers are: the Power Glove's oddly alluring spot in the world of gaming. But, co-director Andrew Austin said, "when doing research for the film, it became apparent that nobody had done any sort of serious documentation on the story behind the Power Glove." So he and co-directors Adam Ward and Paula Kosowski decided to make some of their own.

"As a culture, we have a tendency to look back at toy products of our youth and think that they just magically appeared out of nowhere, when in reality, bringing a technologically sophisticated toy like the Power Glove to market in 1989 involved the effort of dozens of really dedicated and talented people," Ward said in an email to Wired. "When speaking with the creators, we noticed a good deal of 'what if' type thinking, as if to say that Wii-like technology might have come 20 years sooner had the Power Glove been given a fairer chance."

He's right. Even though using motion to control Wii and Xbox Kinect games is the norm now, it wasn't in the late 1980s, and after much hype around its release, the Power Glove pretty much flamed out. But now in the DIY/hacker age, it has found new life with musicians like Side Brain who use it as an instrument and Nintendo mega-fan Isaiah "TriForce" Johnson, who appears in the film to show off his sizeable collection of Gloves and proclaim "the Power Glove has been such an inspiration to me." There's also a quick bit about an artist who made a bedazzled Michael Jackson Power Glove. (No, it doesn't get better than that.)

"It wasn't until browsing through a bunch of Power Glove YouTube videos, though, that we realized how many fans not only remember the Power Glove, but still actively talk about it and create new things with it," Austin said.

So when will we see this most magic of documentaries? Soon, but not soon enough. The filmmakers said they still want to do a few more interviews, but they hope to have their documentary ready to take to film festivals next year. C'mon The Power of Glove! That's so sad.